WKU football coach Willie Taggart decides to return to roots, heads for South Florida

Leaves WKU after football turnaround

10:54 PM,
Dec. 8, 2012

Willie Taggart passed up being the Sun Belt's best-paid coach.

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Western Kentucky University athletic director Todd Stewart said the school did everything it could to keep Willie Taggart as its football coach. But in the end, Taggart chose to be close to his Floridian roots as well as the state's fertile recruiting base.

Taggart, who took the WKU program to unprecedented heights, was named head coach at the University of South Florida on Saturday afternoon. It's a homecoming for Taggart who is a native of Palmetto, Fla., and played at Manatee High School before becoming a star quarterback at WKU.